07-28-2019, 10:54 AM
I'm having a bit of a challenge visualizing the mantle you're talking about. However, I have "rescued" an antique mantle, and it's in our house fitted to a pre-existing fireplace.
The mantle is likely early-1900s or older. The structure holds it out from the wall about 5 inches or so. It's a two-piece construction: the main portion surrounding the firebox, and the upper portion which which holds amain mirror and holds about 20 side mirrors, all beveled glass.
The story behind this mantle is that my dad traded a dog to a friend for the mantle back in the early 70s. The old unverifiable story is that it was originally in some roadhouse in the Missouri Ozarks. The mantle sat in pieces in Mom and Dad's basement until my wife and I were cleaning out the house in 2007 (Dad had passed, and Mom was soon to move off into a senior living facility). The mantle was going to go into the dumpster. However, being a wood guy with a wife who has a soft spot for antiques, we dragged it out, hauled it home and I restored it as best I could in my garage shop. The side mirrors were all in tact, but the large mirror was broken and longe since discarded.
The first rebirth of this mantle looked like this as a decoration in our previous home:
Then we moved out of the burbs and onto our acreage; the 2004-built country house has gas fireplaces and modern-style fireplace surrounds. So we decided to retrofit the antique mantle to the living room fireplace. It is held into place using a french-cleat style device that is attached to structure at the top of the bottom half (if that makes sense).
Closeup of the side. The french cleat attaches the underside of the shelf to underlying structure. Unfortunately, I don't have pics of that cleat.
Hope this helps. Good luck.
The mantle is likely early-1900s or older. The structure holds it out from the wall about 5 inches or so. It's a two-piece construction: the main portion surrounding the firebox, and the upper portion which which holds amain mirror and holds about 20 side mirrors, all beveled glass.
The story behind this mantle is that my dad traded a dog to a friend for the mantle back in the early 70s. The old unverifiable story is that it was originally in some roadhouse in the Missouri Ozarks. The mantle sat in pieces in Mom and Dad's basement until my wife and I were cleaning out the house in 2007 (Dad had passed, and Mom was soon to move off into a senior living facility). The mantle was going to go into the dumpster. However, being a wood guy with a wife who has a soft spot for antiques, we dragged it out, hauled it home and I restored it as best I could in my garage shop. The side mirrors were all in tact, but the large mirror was broken and longe since discarded.
The first rebirth of this mantle looked like this as a decoration in our previous home:
Then we moved out of the burbs and onto our acreage; the 2004-built country house has gas fireplaces and modern-style fireplace surrounds. So we decided to retrofit the antique mantle to the living room fireplace. It is held into place using a french-cleat style device that is attached to structure at the top of the bottom half (if that makes sense).
Closeup of the side. The french cleat attaches the underside of the shelf to underlying structure. Unfortunately, I don't have pics of that cleat.
Hope this helps. Good luck.